The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-05-25
The Sunny SOuth-..NO. 3.

Mr. Edior:-Asheville as one writer says,
" set upon hundred hills" has no system
of sewerage, except one line of eight-inch
tle-pipe, laid last summer to accommodate
the principal hotel. Consequently one will
see the foul house-dran, with its green slime
issuing through the wall of a street EN-
bankment directly into the unpaved street.
gutter; and, as there was never any street.
cleaning, the droppings remain and are
ground up with this red clay dust, and with
every passing team floated in the air for you
to inhale. And with all the other and nu-
murous odors from the residences, we found
that the boosted pure air with which God
had furnished this region was largely over
come by these impurities. | must not for
get to mention the fog in this region, for one
writer has had the audacity to proclaim
that there were absolutely no fogsl" Now,
during a stay in this country from May 10
to August H. ] am ready to raise both hands
to affirm that not one solitary morning was
free from fog, and in the main very dense,
often appearing as early as ten P. NJ. and
lasting until driven away by the rising sun.
| will say, however, that very soon the air
would become most balmy, bracng and
helpful. If one was well and strong with
appetite for anything offered and with little
care for wholesome and restful bed and an
ardent admrer of romantic scenery and
wild flowers, this country would probably
fill the bill as nearly as any, for IL Is to-day
the Saratoga of the South the great
resort of the elite from the hot states of
Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana,
South Carolina, eastern North Carolina and
portions of the coast of Virginia. This
class come here for the elevation and cool
air, and with their elegant turnoutS and serv-
ants in livery help very largely to make
the place lively from June to October. 1t is
our Saratoga and White Mountains in mini
ature, with the quality of the show reduced
from our best theaters to the dime museums.
The city of Waynesville, of six hundred in
habitants, is situated thirty-two miles
southerly from Asheville and is reached by
a road branching off at Ashevile and rising
five hundred feet, and beyond still higher,
finally reaching gap in the Black Noun
tain range and forcing its way through to
the state of Georgia, there to connect with
the Atlantic shore and Gulf coast The
town is small, clean and enterprising, offer
ing far greater hope in pure and elevated
air to the invalid than does Asheville in its
present unsanitary condition, and were to
advise friend to go to either place it would
he the small, clean city of Waynesvile.
Here are located the noted Hayward County
White Sulphur Springs, and an excellent
new hotel, to accommodate some five hun
dred guests, with numerous private resi-
dences where boarderS are accommodated
during the season. Our stay here of two
weeks was the most satisfactory of any por-
ton of our journey. One acquaintance we
child was exceedingly pleasant, wrote in
his eccentric Kentucky style to the Louis
vile paper a few lines of his observations on
his arrival and stay in Asheville. He says:
Your first sensation upon landing here is
that of hunger, which is liable to stay with
you till you start home. If the foul odors
with which the atmosphere is loaded as the
result of an imperfect sewerage Tor really
none at alb could be eliminated, so that a
poor devil could take his air straight, the
climate might be regarded as the most re-
markable on the face of the earth for pull
monary complaint. But when fellow has
to inject carbolc acid into his proboscis as
disinfectant he feels more like beating a
retreat than praising the climate" This
poor fellow, only thirty-six years old, having
been in full vigor till within the year before,
sent there by the most eminent physician in
Kentucky, returned home in September
after spending four to five months in this
region, and died in November. Doctors
should study the living, water, etc, as well
as the air. The citizens boast of northern
invalids who have come there and been
cured and remained as permanent and
prosperous residents of the place. OF my
own knowledge, by investigation, there
are two such cases. though neither are there
| from preference, but feel a sense of greater
security there than they would to return to
their former homes. l met invalids of my
class from Kentucky. Illinois. Indiana
/
their personal history and causes and stages
of their disease, and that after staying
some as long as ten months and down to
! four, they returned home with no percepti
! BILE improvement. | know of only one ia
vorable case hat of a Boston man who had
always been rugged till year ago and who
| was taken with severe hemorrhage. He
went there in February and came home in
! September perfectly cured man, as he ap
pears and feels himself to be- And against
this / know a score not benefited, in theil
own judgment. My personal opinion from
! experience is not favorable, and it is based
! upon what one has to undergo in the man
ner of living, opportunities of rest and
vitiated atmosphere, with not the least
thought on the part of your host " of the
real wants and necessities of an invalid; anG
to my mind physicians are not fully doing
their duty to their patients in commenting
this place as the great " Eldorado." if they
are aware of any of the sanitary condi
tons | have mentioned. / do not recall one
case in which it was not universally claimed
that the living and bedding, with the water
We're the draw acks-and to people OF
Northern States an nsurmountable OBJ
stacle-to any advance which nature nigh
otherwise provide. One might as well try Il
solve Darwin's problem of evolution y
as to change the manner of cooking as per
formed by the colored cook, or eradicate the
smell of burnt grease on the stove-lids. Bu
let me close, as my letters already too long
My next may treat of more satisfactory
matters. l.. w. JONES.
New Publications.